Chapter 04 – Runaway

"Lady Izayoi, where are you going?" The soldier's voice stopped her as she was trying to sneak out of her room to the gardens.

"Just the gardens." She assured him with smile, but he didn't seem to be convinced.

"I'm sorry, but I have orders not to let you out of your room." He said humbly, she frowned a bit, but quickly regained her neutral face, so the soldier wouldn't notice. It wasn't lady-like to frown, especially when someone else could see it.

There was much more rules what she could and couldn't do and of course she knew them all very well, but that couldn't stop her rebellious nature. She didn't like to be chained to her responsibilities and others' expectations. She liked to be free, but with her status, she knew it was impossible for her.

Still, once in a while she sneaked out of the castle and just wandered around. She couldn't go through the main gates, but she found a way out leading from the gardens. That was very convenient for her as she spent most of her free time there, but now it seemed that even that was now forbidden to her. She knew it had something to do with her last trip outside, but there was also something else.

Lately there were rumors that a demon was lurking around the castle. No one was ever able to lay their eyes on that demon, but the presence of some was confirmed by several monks and priestesses.

For some reason, from the first time she heard about it, she concluded that the demon must have been Sesshoumaru. At least that was what she thought and she refused to believe in anything else. She wanted to meet him again, but as long as she would be locked in the castle, she knew there wasn't many chances for her. She had to get out and see him at any cost. It didn't even cross her mind that the demon outside might have been someone completely different.

"But today is such a lovely day, it would be a shame to spend it inside." She opposed, putting all her charm into her words. The soldier hesitated.

"I understand, however, your father..." He started, but she, forgetting her good manners, quickly interrupted his speech.

"My father isn't here now. I'll be there just for a while, no one will ever find out about it." She said with pleading voice and puppy eyes.

There was very few men who would be able to resist her when she wanted something and she was very skilled in using this ability of hers. So, after a not so long while of her longing look, searching for a bit of kindness in the soldier's heart, his will broke and he sighed.

"Alright, but only for a little while and I will be watching you all the time." He tried to sound strict, in effort to gain back a bit of his lost authority. Izayoi hugged him lightly and gave him a light kiss on the cheek, before rushing to the gardens with smile.

The soldier stood on his place completely stunned, which was exactly according to Izayoi's plan. When he's finally got over his shock, Izayoi was already long gone. He quickly ran to the gardens, where he hooped she would be, but even after he searched it all, she was nowhere to be found. At that moment he knew he was in trouble.

Izayoi quickly climbed up the tree which connected her with the outside world, knowing that her guardian would arrive sooner or later. Just as she was ready to jump down on the other side, she saw him running out of the building. She smiled mischievously and then jumped.

Once she was behind the wall, there was nothing and no one who could stop her anymore and she started slowly strolling away through the forest which surrounded their castle. She still had to be careful about stepping too close to the road. She could never know who would appear there and take her back.

For someone watching her, it might seem that she was going in random direction, but her route was clearly set. She was heading to the place where she saw Sesshoumaru for the last time. That was the place she would expect him to be and deep inside her heart she knew he would be there.

Slowly reaching that place, her heart started to beat rapidly from excitement. There was no hesitation in her steps and no doubt in her heart. She would meet him today for sure. There was nothing what could stop her. Even if he wasn't at that place, she would search for him until she would find him.

Since she returned to the castle, there was nothing else on her mind. Whenever his face popped up in her mind, she would smile. Her eyes would be bright and happy and deep inside her stomach, there was that strange, but pleasant feeling she's never felt before in her whole life. The feelings she had could be compared only to those of when she was little and her father returned after being away for a long time, but even that was still pretty far from what she was feeling now.

Finally she reached the spot she had in mind and a wave of disappointment ran through her body, the proof of it her quickly saddened look. She was so sure he would be here. She would bet anything, that's how certain she was, but the place was empty. Only the slow breeze was accompanying her now.

She collapsed on the ground into a sitting position and slowly caressed the soft grass with her hand. She was exactly on the spot where he stood that time and while closing her eyes, she was trying to imagine he was here with her. At this moment, right beside her.

The wind was playing softly with her hair and she smiled, imagining that it was him who was playing with her hair like this. She hugged herself lightly with her hands and thought how it would be nice if it was him hugging her this way.

Lost in the moment, she didn't realize, she wasn't alone anymore. She realized that only when someone rudely grabbed her upper arm and she yelped in surprise and a bit from pain. She turned to look at her attacker only to be met with three practically identical faces of men she never saw before. Or were they even men?

The only thing which was differing them from each other were their hair as each of their heads had different color. The one with yellow hair was currently holding her arm, mischief flashing from his deep brown eyes in uncomfortable amount. The other two had also brown eyes, but the one with blue hair was sending her just a cold look, while the one with red hair had his eyes full of life and wildness, grinning widely. She didn't like the look in either of their eyes, but she didn't have time to think about it for too long as a strong shock ran through her body and she fell unconscious on the ground.


She woke up with a horrible headache. Slowly opening her eyes and surpassing a hiss which was trying to escape from her lips, she carefully looked around herself. Her and all her captors were in some cave, the blue one sitting close to the entrance on watch, while the other two were sitting around a fire. She herself was further inside and even if her hands weren't tied behind her back, she would have practically no chance of escape. Her legs were also tied together, but it wasn't rope or anything of that sort she was tied with. It was something different. Something cold.

Ice!

She quickly shifted into sitting position and looked at her legs and with some effort she could even see her hands. Around her ankles and wrists there was a big mass of ice and her heart started to beat faster from fear. This wasn't possible. In human terms at least. Thinking about it this way, she looked towards her captors, who had already turned their heads towards her at her sudden movement and she started to shake at the undeniable truth. Her captors were demons and they definitely weren't friendly as Sesshoumaru was.

Were these the demons lurking around their castle? Was she mistaken when she thought that it was Sesshoumaru? She wanted to believe so much that he would come to see her again that she never even though about another possibility and now here she was. Alone with three terrifying demons with whatever intentions they had with her.

The red one stood up and slowly walked towards her. She tried to crawl away from his incoming form, but with her hands and legs tied as they were, it wasn't really working. Moreover, she also realized that she was almost at the wall, so there was nowhere she could crawl to anyway. The demon stopped right in front of her and bent down to her.

"She's shivering, probably from cold. I told you she is just a human so she wouldn't be able to withstand the ice-cuffs." He looked briefly at the blue one who just shrugged.

"Do you have any other idea how to tie her up? I'm sure she'll be able to bear it a little longer. Just leave her be." He said in monotone voice and again turned towards the outside, scanning the area.

"You know, I think both of you are mistaken in one thing." The yellow one spoke, gaining the attention of the rest of the occupants in the cave.

"Maybe she isn't shivering from cold. Maybe she's just that scared of us." He grinned widely and the red one looked back at her. After examining her for a few seconds, he moved another inch towards her and she flinched. He smirked and turned away from her, walking back to the fire.

"You're right. It's so simple. Why didn't I think of it in the first place?" He muttered, the yellow one shot him a knowing smirk.

"Well, that's probably because I'm the smartest one." He grinned, the red one frowned.

"Don't flatter yourself. I'm at least as smart as you." The red one opposed.

"Oh, really? You can't even count to three and you think you can compare yourself with me?"

"What did you say?"

"So now you even went deaf? Or your simple brain just can't process what I said?"

"How dare you! Take it back!"

"Not in a million years!"

"You...!"

"Shut up you two." The blue one sitting at the entrance spat at them. "You're acting like little kids. If you want to keep ranting about it then go somewhere else. I'm in no mood for listening to your stupid disputes." The two went quiet and looked at each other with guilty faces.

"I'm sorry brother." The red one started.

"No, I'm sorry, I started it." The yellow one took the blame on himself.

"That's not true, if I didn't go to check on her and didn't misunderstand the situation, none of this would have been said."

"And I'm telling you it's my fault."

"Hey you two! I told you to stop!" The blue one scolded them again and this time neither of the two said anything else, knowing that it would probably just end up in another argument.

If Izayoi wasn't so scared, she would probably start to laugh, but right now it really wasn't the moment for that. Despite her fears, she decided to find out something about her predicament.

"Uhm, what are you going to do with me?" She asked almost in a whisper, but she knew they would hear her. The three brothers looked at her with rather amused faces, though, she could swear she also saw a hint of surprise. Then they looked at each other, probably thinking about what should they say.

By the looks of their expressions it looked as if they were holding a discussion, but no words were said. Though, what she could deduce from the expressions, she started to regret she ever asked anything. In the end, the blue one averted his eyes back to look outside, the red one stared into the fire and the yellow one stood up and went to her.

"Curious, aren't we?" He crouched down to her, so they would be at the same eye level, a smirk flashing across his face.

"Well, you'll probably kill me sooner or later, so I thought that I might at least know what's going to happen to me before that." She said fearfully, lowering her eyes. The man in front of her laughed.

"Kill you? Where did you get that from? If we wanted to kill you, you would be already dead." She looked at his still laughing form, now getting scared even more. Of course, death was scaring her, but she was sure that she would like it more than whatever they had in plan for her, if they wanted to keep her alive. All the scary tales about demons she was hearing when she was a child resurfaced to the front of her mind and she again started to shake.

"Then what?" She insisted on her question, even though her voice was starting to betray her feelings. The person in front of her stopped laughing and put on a serious face for a change.

"We are going to offer you to our master as a mistress, so you'd better act accordingly or you'll meet a fate much worse than death." He said darkly, a smirk again appearing on his face. When he saw her scared look, he started to laugh again and with that he returned to the fire.

She was trying to stay strong. She didn't want these demons to see her weakness, but with the thought of becoming a mistress of some demon she didn't even know, the tears started to flow out of her eyes before she could stop them. Why didn't she just listen to the warnings? Why couldn't she stay in the castle? Why did she even believe that Sesshoumaru would want to see her again? He was a demon, just like these were. They didn't care about humans and their feelings.

When he saved her that day, maybe he really didn't do it for her. Maybe he just found her amusing for some reason and that's also why he stayed with her until she was safe. She didn't mean anything to him and now she would end up in hands of some other demon and she didn't even want to think about what was going to happen to her there.

Even through her weeping, she noticed the change in the atmosphere and she looked up to see what was going on. She couldn't wipe her tears away, as her hands were still tied behind her back, but after a while she managed to blink them away just enough to see what was happening around her.

In the place where used to be an entrance to the cave, was now a wall of ice, all three of her captors looking towards it. She had no idea what was happening. Were they attacked? She didn't see their faces so she couldn't tell by that, but she noticed that they all were in fighting stance. The blue one with his hands stretched in front of him towards the ice wall, probably trying to keep it in place. The red one had his hands in fists, which were surrounded by fire, while the yellow one had sparks all over his body, the strongest sparks on his hands similarly to the one with fire.

Barring the sound made by the sparks and by the fire, the cave was completely silent. Izayoi even stopped breathing, holding her breath in anticipation. What was going to happen? After surveying her surroundings, she was pretty sure they were attacked, but by whom? She wasn't sure if she wanted to meet the attacker. If it were the people from the castle, these three wouldn't be so tense. It must have been someone stronger, much stronger and in the end she could end up even in more trouble than she was now. She could hear the fastened beating of her heart, and in effort to not think about her fear, she started to count.

One... Two... Three...

It was too fast. So fast, that she was starting to wonder if her heart would withstand the pressure.

Four... Five... Six...

Why wasn't anything happening yet? It's dragging for too long. Was anything going to happen at all?

Seven... Eight... Nine-

CRACK!

A loud shattering noise rang through the cave as the wall of ice gave up after whatever force collided with it. Izayoi quickly turned away, covering herself from the spears of ice which were now flying in every direction. Even when the sound of shattering ended, she didn't dare to look that way. She was surprised when she didn't feel any of those spears hit her, but she was too scared to check on the situation. She was once again surrounded by silence, this time even deeper than before as there was no cracking of electricity or flames to be heard anymore.

"Are you going to make it a habit that every time we meet, you'll be in need of help?" A calm voice stated from behind her and her eyes widened. It was the voice she wanted to hear so much. A voice which belonged to the person she wanted to meet more than anything else. But why would that person be here? Could it be her imagination? What if she turned around and nobody would be there, or worse, her captors would be there?

"Are you hurt?" The same voice asked again and this time she knew it wasn't an imagination. She quickly turned around, wide smile on her face as she shook her head that she was alright. She couldn't believe her eyes. He was really here. He came to save her. Sesshoumaru was... bending closer to her!

Her eyes widened. What was he doing? His face was coming closer to hers and her heart again started to beat faster than normal. He was so close. She knew she should stop him, because it wasn't appropriate, but she didn't really want to. Even if she did, she wouldn't have the strength for that. Instead, she closed her eyes and waited.

What happened afterwards wasn't exactly what she was expecting. She felt the ice around her wrists starting to melt and she opened her eyes in embarrassment when she realized how she misunderstood the situation. He was bent over her, so he could have an access to her wrists and he seemed to be focused only on that. Their faces were only an inch from each other and she had to look away so he wouldn't notice just how red her face was.

When her hands were free, he moved to her ankles and she watched what he was doing. Some green liquid was seeping out of his claws and he seemed to be careful about not letting it touch her skin. The liquid was melting the ice with a hissing sound, and she didn't have to think about it too much to figure out what damage it would do if she actually touched it.

When even her legs were free, he finally looked at her and their eyes locked. As she was looking at his calm face, the tears again started to make their way out of her eyes, but this time it were tears of relief, and realizing that she was really safe now, she threw her arms around his neck and started to cry uncontrollably.

"I was so scared! I wanted to see you again so much that I didn't listen to the warnings and when I ended up here..." The rest of her words was lost in her sobbing. Neither of them said anything for a while, Izayoi slowly calming down.

"I'm so glad you came." She then looked at him with gratitude, managing to form a small smile on her face. Her lips were trembling and she noticed as Sesshoumaru frowned.

"Are you cold?" He asked, surprising her a bit, but when he said it, she started to feel it. She was cold. Very, very cold and she noticed it only now, when the situation finally calmed enough for her to have time to be bothered about these things. She nodded, suddenly not trusting her voice anymore and when Sesshoumaru drew her into his embrace, slowly picking her up, she only snuggled closer.

"I'll take you home, they'll take care of you there." He informed her and she again just nodded. Their way back to her home was silent. Izayoi was too tired for saying anything and Sesshoumaru wasn't very talkative in the first place. Only when they arrived at the sight of the town and Sesshoumaru stopped, Izayoi finally spoke up.

"Will I see you again?" She asked, Sesshoumaru looked at her as if thinking.

"You shouldn't seek my presence again. I'm sure neither of our fathers would allow it." He informed her. She slumped her head, knowing all too well that he was right. He set her on the ground, letting her lean against the closest tree, as she was still too weak to keep standing. She looked up at him with plead and silent question in her eyes, but he quickly looked away.

"The guards are already searching for you. They'll come this way in a while and when they find you, they'll take you back. Until then I'll stay close to keep you safe, but after that, you should forget that we've ever met." He didn't look at her again and within a blink of an eye, he was gone.

She lowered her head in sadness. He told her to forget, but how was she supposed to do that? She knew she couldn't, even if she actually tried, but she didn't even want to try. She didn't want to forget, even if those two times were the only times they'd meet, she didn't want to let that go. Even if she was to never meet him again, she wanted to at least keep her memories about those two events where she actually could be with him.

She heard some voices coming closer and she knew it were the guards. That's right, she ran away again and she knew she would be in trouble for that. She didn't want to forget, but she would have to stop thinking about Sesshoumaru for a while, for now she would have to deal with her father and she couldn't afford to be distracted by anything.

But she knew she would be alright. As long as she knew he was somewhere out there, she would be fine. Even if she couldn't meet him again, the knowledge of him being there was enough for her to allow her to keep going. Maybe, if she wished for it hard enough, they would meet again after all.


Only when I had this almost done, I realized that the first time, she was attacked by three men, now she was attacked by three demons, I wonder when I'm going to stop this habit XD. Also, I have a feeling that I'm writing Izayoi very similarly to Kagome, what do you think?